COLOMBO (AFP) — Sri Lanka's army stepped up security in cities across the island Sunday as a Japanese peace envoy arrived to assess prospects to end a fresh surge of fighting in Asia's longest-running civil war.
Extra troops were deployed in public places including in the capital Colombo which has been rocked by several deadly blasts this month, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.
"We have given special attention to security in schools and public places where more people tend to gather," Nanayakkara said.
Envoy Yasushi Akashi arrived in Colombo Sunday for three days of talks with President Mahinda Rajapakse and other government leaders.
Akashi will assess "the current situation of the peace process and its future," Japan's embassy here has said.
Elsewhere, fighting across Sri Lanka's northern frontier has left at 29 rebels dead over the weekend, the military said Sunday placing their own losses at two soldiers killed and eight injured.
Some 361 rebels and 13 troops have been killed so far this month, according to military figures.
Sharply differing casualty tolls reported by the military and rebels cannot be verified independently since human rights groups and journalists are denied access to the embattled regions.
Bloodshed has mounted since the government decided this month to pull out of a tattered 2002 truce with the Tamil Tiger rebels, who are fighting for a separate homeland.
The conflict has claimed more than 60,000 lives since 1972.
Tokyo and the island's other major donors on Saturday voiced concern over Colombo's decision to scrap the truce, saying they feared it would lead to more bloodshed and stall peace efforts.
The financial backers, who include the United States, the European Union and Norway, also sought access to meet the Tigers in their rebel-held territories in the north and urged Colombo to allow a UN presence to monitor rights abuses.
There was no immediate comment from the government. Sri Lanka has repeatedly rejected previous calls for a UN rights mission here.
In Saturday's joint statement, the donor quartet urged warring parties "to protect civilians" and allow humanitarian agencies to access "populations in need."
Sri Lanka announced it would formally pull out of the six-year truce with the Tigers on January 16, saying the guerrillas had used the ceasefire as a cover to rearm, recruit and attack troops.
However, the Tamil Tigers said last week that it was "shocked and disappointed" by the Sri Lankan government's decision and appealed to Norway, which brokered the truce, to remain engaged.
A Tamil opposition lawmaker was gunned down at the beginning of the month in Colombo, while a roadside bomb just outside the capital, killed a government minister and his bodyguard last week.
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